Letter From Washington
My sympathies for the DC statehood movement are limited at best, but after reading this morning’s Post, even those minimal feelings are diminished further:
Three District veterans of the war in Iraq yesterday appealed to the U.S. House of Representatives to extend a provisional floor vote to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton when Congress reconvenes today, saying they risked their lives to bring democracy to Baghdad only to return home without a vote in America’s capital.”The maximum is what my buddies and I are pledged to give,” said Army Reserve Spec. Isaac Lewis, 26. “We believe that voting representation is not too much to ask in return.”
Am I the only one who objects to using the strong emotions wrought by our involvement in Iraq to lobby for expanded DC congressional representation? I thank these soldiers for their service, but that has absolutely no bearing on Norton’s job description. Later in the article:
[22-year-old Emory Kosh] called a limited House vote a “good beginning” but less than the rights Iraqi citizens expect to enjoy at month’s end.
Points to the Post for noting that Kosh didn’t just walk in off the street — he’s an aide to Norton. So, she’s enlisted her employee to argue that life in Baghdad is preferable to the District so her party can lose a party-line vote 204 to 232 instead of 203 to 232? If she thinks the Iraq war is an appropriate starting point for debate about DC statehood, then I definitely don’t want her casting votes.
P.S. For the case against making a state of this city (!) and a proposal for a much better alternative, read this.
As a District resident, any argument that advances the cause of equal representation is a fair one. We are not equal until all citizens get a vote.
Andy C.
They can always move to NoVA.
“Am I the only one who objects to using the strong emotions wrought by our involvement in Iraq to lobby for expanded DC congressional representation? I thank these soldiers for their service, but that has absolutely no bearing on Norton’s job description.”
The issue isn’t Norton’s job description. The issue is ensuring that all Americans have a voice AND a vote in the US House of Representatives–someone who represents them and casts a vote with their specific interests in mind.
The 26th Amendment (lowering the voting age from 21 to 18) was largely a result of the Vietnam War. By 1971, the year the 26 Amendment passed, almost half of the American service men that died in the Vietnam War were under 21. Until Nov. 1971, they could fight and die for America but they couldn’t vote in America.
I think it makes perfect sense to talk about the essential rights that come with being an American at a time when our country and our government are asking citizens to make the ultimate sacrifice. War is the perfect context for this discussion, and history has judged it so.
The question should be: Why shouldn’t the roughly half million US citizens in Washington, DC have the same voting rights and representation as the roughly half million American citizens who live in Wyoming?